Stocks Tumble as Fed Presidents Send Competing Messages

Written by: Andrea Tse06/24/13 - 4:51 PM EDT

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NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- U.S. stocks tumbled Monday as fears of a Chinese banking crisis were heightened as three Federal Reserve presidents offered competing views about the central bank plans for the stimulus measures that have helped fuel stocks for more than a year.

The S&P 500 lost 1.2% to 1,573.09 after dropping as much as 2% during the session before those losses were pared to a decline of 0.6%.

Stocks appeared to have rebounded after hitting its session low before Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, who is not a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, said he favors the central bank scaling back its quantitative easing programs.

Earlier in the day, comments from New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley, an FOMC voting member, that the Fed ought to be more aggressive in its bond-buying program if it is to reach its inflation and employment targets, appeared to calm investor concerns.

Separately, Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota also on Monday said the bank needs to provide clearer language about the longer-term Treasury and mortgage-back securities purchases. Kocherlakota said the bank needs to continue the monthly purchases at least until the unemployment rate dipped below a 7% threshold.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note was sliding 9/32, boosting the yield to 2.572%.

"In terms of the 10-year, I think a lot of it is an overreaction; the timetable that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke outlined only plays out under what I could call a perfect scenario," said Greg McBride, senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com. "A 100 basis-point jump in the 10-year Treasury note yield since May based on what amounts to no new information is very surprising."

"The last few weeks have marked merely the beginnings of the turnaround that will have equities back on the road south, to near beginning of year levels, over the course of the second half of this year, "Gina Martin Adams, the New York-based institutional equity strategist at Wells Fargo Securities said in a client note.

The Shanghai composite plummeted 5.3% on Monday, its most severe single-session drop in nearly four years as the People's Bank of China indicated the country's largest banks should limit risky loans to strengthen their balance sheets.

The S&P is down nearly 5% in June, driven by expectations that the Fed is poised to taper its bond-buying program that has helped the gauge climb more than 100% from its March 2009 lows.